My mixed feelings about the Mahabharata have definitely continued while reading Part B. There were more actions taken that confused or angered me, but I also at times laughed at the foolishness of the characters (usually the male ones). I hope that in the latter half of the epic the women characters have a more interesting story. Draupadi especially seems to have zero agency and I wish that was different.
The tale that stuck out to me the most concerning foolish characters was Tale 80, "The Game Begins". In this, Yudhishthira faced Shakuni at dice, as Duryodhana is jealous of his cousins and wants to take everything from them. Why honor dictated that Yudhishthira had to accept their challenge for dice I have no idea, but that seems like the most idiotic practice ever. Why would honor dictate you have to play a game and keep playing until you have nothing left?? Couldn't he just play one game, lose, and call it good?
The other idiotic part was that he staked his wife and his brothers in the game. But, he especially did not own his brothers so I don't know how that was allowed to fly. I guess back in those days it worked because he was the king. I think it would be interesting to change this story somehow to where Vidura was successful in getting King Dhritarashtra to stop the idiotic game of dice. Maybe somehow the gods stepped in? The Pandavas are, after all, children of the gods.
Bibliography: Part B, Page 8, Tale 80 of Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata by Laura Gibbs. Link: Tale 80.
No comments:
Post a Comment